Born of a convict during the 17th century, Robin Wright’s titular character is a woman who spends the greater part of her life struggling against her society’s views of poor females. She herself gives birth to a daughter whom she is separated from at a young age. It is this young girl with whom the tale begins; Moll’s companion and friend Morgan Freeman regaling to her her mother’s history. Though short, the interactions between the girl and Freeman are the best parts of the film. While the film is pretty and Wright is charismatic, there isn’t a lot of life to the story as it seemingly moves from episode to episode in Moll’s life, though seemingly not the in the way of Daniel Defoe’s work of the same name.

In this overly long war film, lieutenant colonel Mel Gibson is chosen to lead and train a battalion to fight during the early days of the war in Vietnam. Back home, his wife Madeline Stowe provides support to the other wives left behind. It’s a pretty typical war film with lots of fighting and lots of people dying. There’s just enough backstory about each character that the viewer is supposed to care when they’re blown away. I found the female characters to be somewhat more interesting, but their stories also soon just became notifying the women about their dead loved ones. Though only a little actual characterization is given, there are small attempts to show the Vietnamese command and their soldiers’ experiences on the other side of the war.  

In Reagan-era Los Angeles, Rowdy Roddy Piper has drifted into the city looking for work. There he is awakened to a conspiracy where aliens are living among humans, manipulating them, and stealing Earth’s resources. Those who wear the special sunglasses can see the truth, which beings are actually aliens and the subliminal messages they are using to control the populace. The plot is reminiscent of The Matrix to the point where I’m surprised the ridiculous red-pillers hadn’t latched onto this film instead when they are espousing the ‘truth’. It’s quite a wonderful piece of work. The visuals between the real and false world are fun. I’m surprised Roddy Piper wasn’t more of a leading man. He’s appealing and he leads the film quite well. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a movie where the two protagonists (Piper and an equally great Keith David) brawl with each other for more than five whole minutes. 

I do wonder how well someone who has never seen an episode of The Sopranos would follow this movie. As a fan of the television series, this prequel offered quite a bit for me. The film offers the rise and fall of Dickie Moltisanti, setting him up for better and much worse as the mentor of Tony Soprano. Set during the 1967 Newark riots, there’s quite a bit of retconning done to pull in as many references as possible to the original series. This is also done with a number of the characters from the series, shoehorning caricatures of well-known characters into roles that could have better been filled by different personalities. The narration of a ghostly Christopher Moltisanti is rather unnecessary and overly explains things that are already being shown. There were many bright spots, mostly in roles where the actors didn’t try to overly copy their predecessors (Vera Farmiga as Livia, William Ludwig and Michael Gandolfini as young Tonys, Corey Stoll as Junior) but I think it all could have been best served as a limited series. 

In a poor neighborhood in Galveston, Texas, a gang of teenagers sets out to solve the murder of a well-liked beat cop before the killer comes after the only witness, the five year old brother of one of the members. It’s an interesting blend of Blaxploitation and amateur detective mystery that is unique in the young age of the protagonists. The last act shows that the cop, while good to the youths, was not always kind to other disenfranchised groups which shines an important light onto other unfortunately more acceptable prejudices.    

Based on a true story, Valerie Bertinelli is the recently divorced mother of an infant son who begins a relationship and then moves in with a female co-worker. Because of what she believes is an ‘immoral’ lifestyle, her mother, Vanessa Redgrave, sues for custody of her grandson and wins. The actual details of the case are mind-blowingly sad and this film doesn’t do them justice. The courtship and conditions of the romantic relationship don’t play out very believably and Redgrave gives a really weird accent throughout.

This served as a great companion to my recent watching of The Angry Red Planet as it is a direct homage to those science fiction films of the 1950s. The residents of Earth suddenly discover that their planet has been visited by a battalion of flying saucers. While opinions vary on how to greet these visitors, the Martians soon make it clear which way the earthlings should go. With a star-studded cast, it’s not an amazing work of art, but it is a bit of campy fun that can be enjoyable if not taken seriously at all.